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Friday, September 25, 2009

The United States of America Is NOT a Democracy

The United States of America is NOT a democracy.

The republican form of government is a characteristic of a Christian nation. Now please understand that this has NOTHING TO DO with the REPUBLICAN PARTY. This is talking about a fundamental form of government.

“Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.” - Exodus 18:21

That verse shows how the one or the few were just as important as the many – A REPRESENTATIVE OR REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

A little history…

During the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s-1600s, The Catholic Church had gained a great deal of political power and was promoting and allowing things countrary to biblical teaching. One of those was the concept of “Divine Right” which is the foundation of Monarchism. Monarchism allowed kings in Europe to maintain bloodline and totalitarian power as given by God. Yes, in Romans 13, the bible addresses the responsibility of Christians to governing authorities. They are to “be subject to” – which generally means to obey – the government because it has been ordained by God. Paul is speaking here of the general principle of submission to government. There are several other passages that show that God approves of Christians DISOBEYING government, but ONLY WHEN OBEDIENCE TO GOVERNMENT WOULD MEAN DISOBEYING GOD (Exodus 1:17- 21; 1 Kings 18:4–16; Ester 4:16; Daniel 3:12–18 & 6:10; Matthew 2:12; Acts 5:29; Hebrews 11:23). There were even times when God raised up leaders to REBEL against the government and deliver his people from evil rulers (Exodus 1–14; Judges 2:16; Hebrews 11:32–34). However, once biblical understanding became prominent over obedience to church, it was the Reformation movement that came up with the concept of an authentic separation of church and state that still honored God. This is not the modern anti-religious argument being debated today, but a fundamental understanding of how God expects us to govern ourselves.

It was also the Reformation the promulgated the concept of Freedom of Conscience. In general, this is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints. This was very revolutionary to the church because subjects were supposed to hold the same viewpoint as the church and in most cases, the king. To have your own ideas or thoughts, no matter how benign they were, was actually illegal and even seen as heretical in some cases.

And now to the new world…

The concepts of a separation of church & state and freedom of conscience were integral to the pilgrims that first settled in the new world. Biblical understanding and obedience to God above obedience to the church was their motivation for setting out on their own to truly experience religious freedom.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” – Matthew 5:14.

The pilgrims saw themselves as disciples and Matthew 5:14 is speaking to Jesus' disciples who have the kingdom life within them as a living testimony to those in the world who do not yet have the light of Christ in their lives. The civilization they wanted to build in the new world was going to be a shining “city set on a hill.” They wanted their new lives to glorify God first and foremost.

This perpetuated through the generations until the Monarchy in England usurped the role of God in determining the rights of man. That is why Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, wrote about man being “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.” The Reformation had not been forgotten. God was the Creator and Divine Providence of the new nation, NOT the king.

Now that the foundations of the ideology of the US government were established, a type of government was needed to govern over the nation. The Founding Fathers had an opportunity to establish a democracy and chose not to. We were not and never to become a democracy. A democracy is majority rule, or as a friend coins it – two wolves and a sheep deciding on dinner.

AND MANY OF OUR FOUNDING FATHERS UNDERSTOOD THAT:

“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way” - Fisher Ames

“A simple democracy is the devil’s own government” - Benjamin Rush

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams

The first government set up, under the Articles of Confederation, was actually as close to right-wing anarchy as it could be and still be an effective national government. It didn’t work.

The framers met to create a document that allows for the best form of government consistent with the attributes exemplified in the one true authoritative document in existence – the bible. And in the Constitution, a REPUBLICAN form of government was guaranteed. To see just how Godly our Constitution is, CLICK HERE.

Article IV, Section 4 of Constitution prevents a democracy. “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government.” Again, don’t think of the political party, but representative government.

Once ratified, the Constitution, and the government, was challenged again and again. The Constitution won.

So, why do we even have democratic politics these days?

It was during the Election of 1828 that the Republicans split to form the National Republicans and the DEMOCRATIC Republicans. This is the birth of the Democratic Party. For years before, a democracy was feared, but at the time this election, the word didn’t seem to bother people, whose generation had been displaced from that of the time of the Constitution, as much. Andrew Jackson campaigned as a champion of the common man and then, once elected, used his high-handed military command style to transform the Executive Branch to have as much power as the Legislative Branch. He usurped powers that weren’t necessarily his to take. In essence he really was the FIRST DEMOCRAT.

What is the true difference between a democracy and a republic?

“[O]ur citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles in the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.” - Noah Webster

The difference between a democracy and a republic is the source of its authority.

In a democracy, whatever the people desire is what becomes policy. If the people decide that murder is no longer illegal, then that will be the law.

In a true republic, the authority rests on the authority of God and the Christian principles promulgated in the bible. Because God proclaims murder to be a crime, it will always be a crime in our republic. The rights and wrongs revealed in the Bible have been the guidelines for the laws of our nation.

The reason America has a constitution is because God does not direct us to have a theocracy, because those are too corruptible by man. The reason to avoid the theocracy was because it is different to obey God’s commands voluntarily, giving glory to God, than to force people to obey them because they are the federal laws. The obedience would go to the government rather than to God. And therefore the state gets the worship rather than God.

As far as the concept of separation of church and state, America has a “free market” approach to religions. It welcomes pretty much any kind of worship by anyone who wants to worship. It also allows those who wish not to practice religion or worship anything to do just that. This is consistent with the concept of freedom of conscience as well. The point of this is not to deny or remove the Christian God from government, but to show that only a real and almighty God could allow a voluntary freedom of religion by His people.

Democracy allows for progressivism and eventual socialism where THE STATE is worshiped. That would also change the source of the government.

It seems that over the last 20 years, Our Constitution has been mangled, omitted, and bifurcated to meet the agenda of a certain entity. If the Constitution is, life the liberals and progressives say, a living document, it’s on its last breath. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, we have a republic, if we can keep it.